The visual appearance of electronic messages, including email and other suitable text-based messaging media, can be enhanced through the application of presentational formatting instructions (e.g., specifying font face, size, color, indentation, bulleted and ordered lists, and the like). Formatting of this nature is typically specified by the message author using a messaging client, such as an email client application, or using another application for authoring the message content, such as a word processor or text editor. The formatting instructions are included with the message content and transmitted to the recipient.
When the message is received by the recipient's device, the recipient's messaging client parses the formatting instructions included in the message that it supports, and applies them to the message content when it is rendered for display. The appearance of the message when displayed can be affected by a number of factors, including the availability of specified fonts at the displaying device, inherent limitations of the message rendering module at the device, overriding settings of the recipient messaging client, and the display screen size and resolution (e.g., pixels per inch). The display screen size may range from a large desktop monitor to a small cellphone screen; the resolution of an electronic device display can also vary from device to device, even those with similarly-sized screens. Thus, for example, despite the declaration of a specific font size in the formatting instructions, the actual physical size of the displayed message text may vary significantly from the physical size displayed while the message was being authored.